Editing Duran Duran (section)

===1983–1985: The "Fab Five", Side projects and Live Aid===
{{See also|The Power Station (band)|Arcadia (band)}}
The band began 1983 at the [[Palladium (New York City)|Palladium]] in New York playing the [[MTV's Second Annual New Year's Eve Rock 'n' Roll Ball|MTV New Year's Eve Rock n' Roll Ball]]<ref>[https://www.concertarchives.org/concerts/mtv-2nd-annual-new-year-s-eve-rock-n-roll-ball MTV 2nd Annual New Year's Eve Rock n' Roll Ball] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240727142424/https://www.concertarchives.org/concerts/mtv-2nd-annual-new-year-s-eve-rock-n-roll-ball |date=27 July 2024 }} at Concert Archives. Retrieved 25 July 2024.</ref> with "Hungry Like the Wolf" still climbing the charts in the US, and the American reissue of the "Rio" single to follow in March. To satisfy America's appetite for their music,<ref name="Green" /> the band re-released their eponymous first album in the US in the middle of the year with the addition of the new single "[[Is There Something I Should Know?]]". Upon its release, this song entered the chart at number one in the UK (a rarity then and their first [[chart-topper]] in their home country) and reached number five on the American charts. During the promotion of this album, Rhodes and Le Bon were MTV guest [[VJ (media personality)|VJs]] for a show, during which artist and admirer [[Andy Warhol]] dropped by to greet them. "Our first gigs in the United States were crazy and culty", Rhodes said later, "But when we came back after 'Hungry' was a hit, it was mayhem. It was [[Beatlemania]]. We were doing a signing of the 'Girls on Film' video at a store in [[Times Square]]. We couldn't get out of the store. The cops sealed off the streets."<ref name=Blender>{{Cite news |first=Michael |last=Odell |title=Fame Had Its Way With Us! |url=http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=316 |work=[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]] |publisher=Dennis Publishing |date=June–July 2003 |access-date=1 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070626185804/http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=316 |archive-date=26 June 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Dramatic—Beatle-Style Mania as Princess Diana's Favourite Group Fly In |work=Daily Mirror |location=UK|date=July 1983}}</ref> Also in 1983, Rhodes produced the UK number one and US number five hit "[[Too Shy]]" for English band [[Kajagoogoo]] and Andy Taylor became the first member of Duran Duran to get married.

The band spent the next year as [[tax exile]]s, writing songs at a [[château]] in France where ''[[The Tube (1982 TV series)|The Tube]]'' with [[Jools Holland]] filmed a documentary with the band in May 1983 before they flew to [[Montserrat]] and then Sydney to record and mix their third album. During the summer, they returned to the UK to perform two concerts, the first on 20 July in front of the Prince and Princess of Wales at the [[Dominion Theatre]], and the second, [[Duran Duran's charity concert at Villa Park 1983|a charity concert at Aston Villa's home ground]]. The band were under pressure to follow up the success of ''Rio'', and the recording process took over six months as different band members went through bouts of perfectionism and insecurity.<ref name=Edwards>{{Cite journal|last=Edwards|first=Mark|title=A Reputation For Endurance; Duran Duran|journal=[[The Times]]|volume=24|issue=456|publisher=F+W Publications Inc.|date=26 March 1995|url=http://www.ionpool.net/duran/articles/ddart28.htm|access-date = 16 May 2007|archive-date=24 November 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051124162707/http://www.ionpool.net/duran/articles/ddart28.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> A newly decadent lifestyle and [[substance abuse]] issues for some members added complications. In the documentary film ''Extraordinary World'', filmed a decade later, Rhodes described the effect on their sound as "barely controlled hysteria, scratching beneath the surface".<ref name=EW>''Extraordinary World'' documentary film, Picture Music International, UK 1993. (PMI MVN4911463)</ref>

The new album, ''[[Seven and the Ragged Tiger]]'' (1983), included the late 1983 hit "[[Union of the Snake]]" (with the soprano saxophone solo by [[Andy Hamilton (pop saxophonist)|Andy Hamilton]]). With "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Rio", "Save a Prayer" and "Is There Something I Should Know?", Duran Duran now had five US Top Twenty hits from three different albums in a single year. The band made music headlines by deciding to release the "Union of the Snake" video to MTV a full week before the single was released to radio. They followed up with "[[New Moon on Monday]]", which reached number nine in the UK. Their next single "[[The Reflex]]", taken from ''Seven and the Ragged Tiger'' and given a significant remix overhaul by [[Nile Rodgers]] of [[Chic (band)|Chic]] fame, became their first number one hit in the United States. "The Reflex" was also their second and final [[List of number-one singles (UK)|UK number one]] and was successful in numerous other countries around the world.

The band embarked on a global tour that continued throughout the first four months of 1984 including their first major stadium dates in America. A film crew led by director Russell Mulcahy followed the band closely, leading to the documentary film ''[[Sing Blue Silver]]'' and the accompanying [[concert film]] ''[[Arena (An Absurd Notion)|Arena]]''. The live album ''[[Arena (Duran Duran album)|Arena]]'' was also recorded during the tour and was released with the new single "[[The Wild Boys (song)|The Wild Boys]]", which went to number two on both sides of the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]]. In February 1984, the band appeared on the cover of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine and won two [[Grammy Award]]s in the brand-new [[Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video|Long Form]] and [[Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video|Short Form]] music video categories. Meanwhile, "[[Save a Prayer]]" gained momentum in North America, and a special US remix of the song became a single in January 1985. It peaked at number 16 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in March. A live version of the song was used for the single's B-side, taken from the concert video footage for ''Arena'' / ''[[As the Lights Go Down]]''.

During this period, all of the band members became heartthrobs for many of their young teenage fans. After the tour, Roger Taylor was married in [[Naples]], Italy, and Rhodes wed in London, wearing a pink velvet tuxedo and top hat.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last = Hauptfuhrer|first = Fred |title = Wedding bells toll for Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes, who marries an Iowa heiress|magazine=[[People (magazine)|People]]|date = 3 September 1985 |url = http://www.lizardkingduran.com/wedding.html | access-date =18 May 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070412062952/http://www.lizardkingduran.com/wedding.html |archive-date = 12 April 2007}}</ref> At the end of 1984, the group featured on the [[Band Aid (band)|Band Aid]] benefit single "[[Do They Know It's Christmas?]]" along with other popular British and Irish musical acts. Le Bon sang fourth on the song, after [[Paul Young]], [[Boy George]] and [[George Michael]] sing their lines.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Flashback: Band Aid Raises Millions With 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/do-they-know-its-christmas-band-aid-1984-geldof-761428/ |access-date=27 November 2021 |magazine=Rolling Stone |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127041125/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/do-they-know-its-christmas-band-aid-1984-geldof-761428/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Even with Duran Duran on hold, band members were soon anxious to record new music, leading to a supposedly temporary split into two side projects. John Taylor and Andy Taylor wanted to break away from the Duran Duran sound and pursue hard rock material; they collaborated with lead vocalist [[Robert Palmer]] and [[Chic (band)|Chic]]'s drummer [[Tony Thompson (drummer)|Tony Thompson]] to form the rock/[[funk]] supergroup [[The Power Station (band)|the Power Station]], releasing two top 10 singles. Le Bon and Rhodes wanted to further explore Duran Duran's atmospheric aspect and formed [[Arcadia (band)|Arcadia]], releasing one album (''[[So Red the Rose]]'') and an accompanying single ("[[Election Day (song)|Election Day]]"). Contributors to that album included guitarist [[Masami Tsuchiya]], bassist [[Mark Egan]], percussionist [[David Van Tieghem]], drummer [[Steve Jordan (drummer)|Steve Jordan]], [[Sting (musician)|Sting]], [[Herbie Hancock]] and [[David Gilmour]] of [[Pink Floyd]]. Roger Taylor was a drummer for Arcadia as well as contributing percussion to the Power Station album. According to Rhodes, the two side projects "were commercial suicide... But we've always been good at that."<ref name=Blender/> The band regrouped to contribute "[[A View to a Kill (song)|A View to a Kill]]" to the 1985 [[James Bond]] film [[A View to a Kill|of the same name]]. This single was the first [[James Bond music|Bond theme]] to go to number one on the US charts, and was at the time the joint highest-placed Bond theme on the UK chart where it reached number two. It was the last single the band recorded as the original five-piece for close to twenty years.

As a follow-up to the Christmas 1984 Band Aid single, Duran Duran performed in front of 90,000 people (and an estimated 1.5&nbsp;billion TV viewers) at the [[Live Aid]] charity concert at [[John F. Kennedy Stadium]] in [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, on 13 July 1985 while their Bond song held the top spot on the American charts. It was not intended to be a farewell performance—the band planned only to take a break after four years of non-stop touring and public appearances—but the original five did not play live together again until July 2003. During their Live Aid set, Le Bon inadvertently hit an off-key [[falsetto]] note in the chorus of "A View to a Kill", an error that was trumpeted by numerous media outlets as "The Bum Note Heard Round the World"<ref name="mckee">{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalspy.com/music/feature/a658048/30-fun-facts-for-the-30th-birthday-of-live-aid/|title=30 fun facts for the 30th birthday of Live Aid|last=McKee|first=Briony|date=13 July 2015|website=[[Digital Spy]]|publisher=[[Hearst Corporation]]|access-date=15 February 2016|archive-date=11 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160211085443/http://www.digitalspy.com/music/feature/a658048/30-fun-facts-for-the-30th-birthday-of-live-aid/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="jones">{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Dylan|author-link=Dylan Jones|date=26 July 2010|title=The Eighties: One Day, One Decade|publisher=[[Random House]]|page=357|isbn=978-1-4090-5225-8|quote=The [Duran] Duran set was memorable for Simon Le Bon's off-key falsetto note that he hit during 'A View to a Kill', a blunder that echoed throughout the media as 'The Bum Note Heard Round the World'. The singer later said it was the most embarrassing moment of his career.}}</ref> (in contrast to [[Freddie Mercury]]'s "Note Heard Round the World" at the [[Wembley Stadium]] Live Aid show).<ref name="mckee"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/opinions/queen-live-aid-cnnphotos/|title=33 years later, Queen's Live Aid performance is still pure magic|last=Thomas|first=Holly|date=24 November 2018|publisher=[[CNN]]|access-date=18 November 2018|archive-date=18 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118081506/https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/opinions/queen-live-aid-cnnphotos/|url-status=live}}</ref> Le Bon later described the moment as the most embarrassing of his career.<ref name="jones"/>{{sfn|Malins|2005|p=172}}